Coup or No Coup?

Over on Costa Rica Living, we've been havin' ourselves a good ole time ranting and raving about Honduras and is it a coup or not. (It's not.) You can read the posts here (this is a 44 page pdf document... you have to be really interested!) The CRL camp is divided: half think coup, the other half think legal constitutional action. Both sides quote Honduras' Constitution. They've read it once and are certain they understand the details. I wonder how many have read the U.S. Constitution?

Some of the posters are downright hostile and very, very certain Honduras needs to take back Zelaya. Not me. I say goodbye to dictator-wannabes. Personally, I think Obama and Clinton are worried sick to see a citizenry kick out a president because he wouldn't follow the Constitution. Might give their peons ideas.

If you are interested in following this situation from a local's point of view, check out La Gringa's blog. I've been reading it since we moved here. She's paying attention, I trust her take.

I'm posting that pdf for hysterical historical purposes: in a few months or years, it will be interesting to look back and read what really happened then and what is really going to happen next. And how right or wrong those other people were. There's a lotta hot air on CRL. Not me, of course. Them.

In other news, I finished my second week of massage school and I'm liking it way more than I thought I would. In fact, it's quite satisfying. Bodies are cool. And I love being out of the house away from this computer! I've given a few freebie test massages and feel like I'll be good by the time I've completed the school. I might be too old, though: I keep forgetting if I've done a part or not. I don't really think it's kosher to ask, "Have I rubbed this leg yet?" Maybe I just need more estrogen.

I also have finished my second week of chelation using Andy Cutler's protocol. I take the chelation supplement (DMSA) on a low dose for three days ("on round"), then off for four ("off round"). The first couple of days off round, I feel pretty yucky, like I'm coming down with a flu: headachy, tired, the whole body flu thing. This means there is mercury in the old bod and it's moving out. Pretty weird, pretty cool. I'm sticking with it. I want that crap outta my body. Maybe I'll start to remember where I am.

On the home front, we are considering moving from this house. We actually considered moving to Heredia across the valley. We lived over there when we first moved to Costa Rica and it is beautiful. It's the country. It's really Costa Rica. Even though I have cows on my street, Escazú is like Manhattan compared to Heredia. So, we spent a couple of days last weekend driving all over Heredia, looking at houses. It's beautiful, it's peaceful, it's cheaper, we have some good friends over there... but I can't leave the city. I've made my life over here, I have friends over here, I have a routine, I know the area. The worst thing about culture shock is that Everything Is Different. Well, I finally know my way around here and I can't give that up. I like what little familiarity I've found, dammit!

All is well here. I'm working hard on the sites I manage, fitting in a practice massage when I can, exercising, chelating, worrying about money and teaching myself not to worry about anything. It will all be just fine, I know it will. Even if I have to go back to the states and live in my car, that would be a new adventure. (I'm still exercising so I'll be in good enough shape to live in a cardboard box if I have to.)

When I bought my first car in 1989, a Toyota station wagon, I bought it because my father had just died, I was in a rocky place and I figured I could always live in a station wagon. Hal's brother has our Toyota mini-van in Key West. We could all live in that. Camping under the stars, eating canned food heated up over a nice fire in the woods. That would be an adventure, now wouldn't it? See? Why worry.

Comments

[Alex]

Coup or no coup?? hmmmmmm
I am sincerely at odds with this one!
I am glad Zelaya is no longer in power. His intentions were clear.
No one but the Honduran people should be involved in the solution to this problem.
But in my view they broke the Constitution in order to save it. This is why I am at odds with the way it was handled.
If the President had been arrested and charged, it would have avoided all the drama that played out. I know chaos to some extent would have been seen on the streets but the rule of law would have prevailed.
By removing and sending him out of the country, the newly governing body bought some time to try to mend fences.
This worries me because who is to say that a true leader of the people for the people isn’t taken out of power in a future dispute by an opposing group by the same methods.

[Douger]

Heredia ? LOL
Take a ride to Bijagua or Guatuso.
THAT'S Costa Rica !

[james]

Heredia is nice and cool.

Regards the Honduran affair, if their constitution permits use of the armed forces to change their president, then their constitution is a joke. Reasonable people do not resort to guns as a first option.

[Saratica]

You and I are never going to agree on this topic. I hope we don't ever get in an argument face to face because, of course, I'll have to shoot you.

Ok, just kidding.

Reasonable people do not resort to guns as a first option, you are absolutely right. But if a government head of state gets unreasonable and fails to follow the laws he agreed to uphold, like in a country's constitution, the only option to remove him/her is force. That requires weaponry.

[Saratica]

Douger, you are right. I guess I meant compared to Escazú... I've been to very remote places that would really really count as "the real Costa Rica." Not to Bijagua or Guatuso... which are where exactly?

[Paul M.]

Alex pretty much summed up my feelings about the Honduras/Zelaya debacle. The episode was not done to specs but ostensibly for the long run benefit of the country/constitution.

Time will tell how this whole scenario plays out and, hopefully, that will be in peaceful fashion.

Sally, I really am not convinced that Heredia is the marvelous place so many say it is. It IS coolish (moreso than Alajuela where I stay), but egad! that hideous traffic if one wants to go to SJ -and one surely will want to go there from time to time.

I'm wondering whether it would serve you to look slightly west and consider Santa Barbara or a bit uphill from there... At least that way if you need to go to SJ you can strike out eastwards and come in thru Santo Domingo and Tibás, down into SJ from the north.

There have to be places on your side of the valley that would be more easily accessible than Heredia yet nice. Have you looked above Santa Barbara at Salitral? Its literally moments away from Santa Ana yet uncrowded, rural, and cool. Apparently not a lot of gringos up there yet, either.

Just pondering, above . . .

Paul
==

[Saratica]

Hi Paul, Santa Barbara de Heredia is where we used to live and it is gorgeous. But that eastward hike adds at least 30 minutes to the drive. There is no way to get from SB to either the pista or to Heredia without that added 30 minutes (minimum). Getting from SB to SJ for rehearsal is why we moved in the first place. On good days, it only took 20 minutes from the pista. Many days it took over two hours...

Heredia would be ok on the west side, actually, right off the #32 pista: that is a pretty straight easy shot to downtown. I could do that for the right house. We are looking Santa Ana, Ciudad Colon even. Fortunately, I like looking at houses!

[Paul M.]

Sally,

When I wrote above: "Have you looked above Santa Barbara at Salitral?" I meant to say "above Santa Ana". But after your comments in the response above I sense that Santa Ana might be too far and then Salitral (which is lovely and cool) is a further eight to ten minutes south up the hill above Santa Ana.

Sorry for the 'fumble-finger' typing in my earlier comment.

Paul M.
==

[james]

Nobody has yet listed what constitutional law he broke. Most constitutions have recourse for amendments and my understanding is that he was attempting to do that, legally.

Is there a provision in their constituion that permits the military to remove a government official rather than first going to the courts or to popular vote?

Whenever the state employs military force to domestic political ends, it is state terrorism, pure and simple. I would have thought that a devout Libertarian like you would agree with that basic principle.

[james]

A coup is defined as a sudden appropriation of power. In what way was the military take over of power in Honduras NOT a coup?

The coup regime is now persecuting journalists and censoring the use of the word "coup". If you are denying that it was a coup, you are playing right along with them. Let's be very careful with our words. Words are a potent tool.

The rich and middle class in Honduras support the coup, the Honduran poor and working class as well as most other nations support Zeleyas.

Unfortunately, now, Zeleya is asking for insurrection and bloodshed to reinstate his legitimate presidency. This could get ugly and was my main objection to the use of guns in appropriating power. The resonse is often in kind.

[Melanie]

Saratica, Yo no se nada de Honduras. Pero me gusta mucho tu actitud.

[Saratica]

Gracias, Melanie. Yo no se mucho de Honduras pero leo y escucho de personas que viven alla. Ellos no quieren Zelaya.

[Saratica]

James, he wasn't trying to change the constitution legally. There are several aspects of their constitution that he was messing with illegally: too close to an election, never allowed to mess with term limits - those two I remember from the many discussion on CRL.

The military did not remove him. The Supreme Court did. They ordered the military to remove him. The military did not take over the government, the Vice President (or a VP equivalent) did, acting on orders from the Supreme Court. All legally from what I know. Which admittedly is not enough.

My political leanings have nothing to do with another country's constitution. I'm all over a president obeying his constitution!!! Other than that, if a government of another country uses its military to enforce the Constitution, it's really none of my business. That's how I see it.

Where do you get your information that the rich and middle class support the coup and the poor support Zelaya? That is not my understanding.

This entire situation is an excellent example of how the media distorts what is happening. Are you getting information anywhere other than the MSM? The MSM is not a reliable source, not by a long shot. If one is really interested in learning how the people in Honduras feel about what is happening, we need to either move there or read as many blogs written by Honduran residents as we can find, and join every Honduran yahoo/google group around and pay attention there.

I'm too caught up in my world and US politics to go to that length. For now, I will have to trust my instincts and my information sources. They differ from yours.

[DJ]

I have a personal rule: Never argue with people who cannot even spell.